Fishing and hunting are a big part of Vermont's heritage. For most native Vermonters, hunting is a tradition going back generations. There are many people here who take a week or two of vacation each year to go deer hunting. The regional radio station, WDEV, even broadcasts a few minutes each morning from a deer camp nearby once deer season opens.

VT deer hunting season is coming in the near future and the timing of the National Hunting and Fishing Day is well placed. To celebrate, Beagle Outdoor Wear is holding its annual open house at its store in Johnson VT , about 45 minutes north of us. The event goes from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and features some of the northeast's best hunters such as the Benoit Brothers and Bob Howe from Maine's Pine Grove Lodge.

Everyone is invited to this family event especially young people and adult newcomers who are interested in learning more about outdoor sports and how hunting and fishing affect Vermontís wildlife.

Also attending the event will be VT Fish & Wildlife officials , Kingdom Knives, Outdoors Magazine, Iron Skillet Seasonings, VT Federation of Sportsmen, and the VT Big Game Trophy Club. Beagle Wear will be displaying their jackets and other clothing, some of which will be on sale. Plus, there will be a barbecue and door prizes.

Beagle Wear is traditional VT outdoor clothing manufactured in the USA and guaranteed for life. The company store is open most days but if you can't visit Vermont, you can order from their website.

Did they have to make the ears stick out so much for the bear on the left? At least the bear on the right does not have age spots.

Who is the best bear to take on a bear of a job? You decide '08 . . . vote by purchasing the Obama Bear or the McCain Bear at Vermont Teddy Bear.

I imagine the company is keeping track of which one sells the most but they don't say anything on their website about releasing the results. It would be an interesting poll.

You can stop in their headquarters store in Shelburne VT, a few miles south of Burlington. You can also tour the factory there. The website link has information about tour and store hours.

VT Teddy Bear also has a store in Waterbury Center VT which has a full selection of bears and costumes plus a Pajama Gram outlet store where you can often find some very good bargains.

If you aren't traveling to Vermont before the election, you can order online of course and put your candidate on display for all to see - much more attention-getting than a bumper sticker or lapel pin.

I hope your candidate wins but, if not, you can curl up with your "best candidate" bear to comfort you through the next four years.

From Sweden, the Dockteater Verkstan Puppet Theater company delights young audiences with its story about monkeys who have all sorts of zany adventures trying to run a circus

I wrote an entry Sept 12 about the amazing puppet shows in the Brattleboro and Bellows Falls area this past week. The festival winds up this weekend with multiple shows Saturday and Sunday. It is about a 2.5 hour drive from us but if I were in southern VT, this is what I would be attending this weekend. See the Puppets in the Green Mountains schedule here.

There is a widely photographed falls you can find in Brewster River Gorge. Locally, it is sometimes called Jefferson Falls.

If you want to fish the area, stop by an excellent little fly shop called Green Mountain Troutfitters to arrange for a guide, get the current flies, etc.

Be sure to drive Route 108 from Jeffersonville to Stowe or the opposite way from Stowe to Jeffersonville. It goes through an area called Smugglers Notch and it is one of the prettiest drives in Vermont.

There are a lot of events going on in Vermont this weekend, too much to review here but I've chosen what I think are a good cross section. If you would like a longer list, go to Vermont Vacationwebsite.

Northern Vermont

The Northeast Kingdom Quiltfest 2008 is being held Saturday, September 20, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the New port VT Municipal Building, 222 Main St. (map on the website home page). Admission is free. Quilt displays, demonstrations, door prizes, raffle quilt, scavenger hunt. Free admission.

Nearby in St. Johnsbury is the Festival of Traditional Crafts at the Fairbanks Museum, on Saturday, September 20, 2008. Artisans and history experts demonstrate the skills that New Englanders used a few hundred years ago including soap making, log boring, chair caning, basket weaving, boat building, natural fiber dyeing, rope braiding, blacksmithing, wood carving, weather forecasting techniques, grafting apple trees, etc. This is part of The Fairbanks Institute for Traditional Crafts series of events - check the website for future workshops. The festival continues into the night with a 7:00 performance by The Bob Amos Band and guest Drexel Rayford who blend several types of music to create a "Sounds of the Kingdom." Here is a Google Map for the museum.

Boyden Family Farm Harvest Festival, September 20 and 21 in Cambridge VT. Go ahead and bring the kids to the festival to see grape picking, grape crushing and pressing, stomping contest, music, clowns and face painting, old farming demonstrations, apple pressing and cider tasting, wine tastings, live music, cheese and bread tastings, Green River Canoe tours.

Battle of Meach Cove Civil Ware Reenactment both Saturday and Sunday. Free admission to "two days of Civil War battles, cannon fire, demonstrations by the artillery, cavalry & hospital corps, infantry drill and camp life of a soldier from the North and the South. Learn about Vermontís role in the Civil War, see Union and Confederate troops squaring off against each other using 1860ís tactics and talk with reenactors about the life of a typical soldier." At Meach Cove, just outside Shelburne and about 15 minutes south of Burlington.

Mushroom hunting Sept 21, 2008 at the Senator Justin Morrill State Historic Site 214 Justin Morrill Highway from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. Mushroom hunting with mycologist Faith Hunt, who shows which can be eaten and which cannot. After the hunt, taste there will be a tasting of cooked wild mushrooms.

Sculptfest 08on Marble Street in Rutland VT. This is an annual event held for the last nine years, "presents large-scale, outdoor installations. An invited curator selects up to ten artists to respond to the post-industrial landscape surrounding the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center. The Studio works with Gawet Marble and Granite Company to accommodate individual artistic visions. This yearís opening reception will again feature a Fine Art Raffle of donated works by well-known sculptors."